If the Mountain won't come to Muhammed...

Mustard Greens photoJHM ©10

I read in our local paper that the Lower 9th Ward's Sankofa Community Development Corporation announced the opening on November 20th,2011 of their Sankofa Farmers Market!  I strongly encourage people to support their effort since in the Lower 9th ward Community there is no supermarket & the pioneers who have come back to re-establish their homes in this community have to travel great distances for simple things we take for granted.

I see an irony for me as I am fortunate in the sense that I can leave my home & in 5-7 minutes can access 5 supermarkets and in 10 minutes the local Wal-Mart and yet 20 minutes away the residents of this community have to travel great distances for the aforementioned markets.

So as the adage goes: "If the mountain won't come to Muhammed, then Muhammed must go to the mountain".  I say way to go to this group in still yet another venture forth by creating this farmers market so the Lower Ninth Ward + their neighbors, Bywater, Arabi,Upper 9th Ward, St. Bernard Parish,Fabourg Marigny, & Treme + others could access fresh produce and other products locally grown.

I personally plan to support them with my dollars and volunteer in whatever way I can,some of which will mean traveling past the supermarkets I have easy access to and going downtown to do my part.

Kohl Rabi photo JHM ©10

About Sankofa Farmers Market: 

www.sankofafarmersmarket.org 

The Sankofa Farmers Market was developed in response to the requests of community members for access to fresh vegetables and fruits for sale at the market. You have asked for a farmers market where you can have direct access to home grown produce. The farmers market will operate every Saturday and will offer seasonal, nutritious produce and locally caught seafood. We will accept the EBT/SNAP benefit card, credit cards, debit cards, and cash. We hope to build a viable market for both vending and shopping to thrive with healthy nutritious food. 

This farmers market will be a year round outlet for local farmers and fishermen to vend their goods in accordance with state and national goals, as well as to provide a social outlet and neighborhood meeting place for families and seniors. We are working in peer partnership with marketumbrella.orgfor consultation with technical information, regular evaluation, and the appropriate market management trainings. We believe that adding EBT access, along with a strong marketing campaign and weekly retail outlet presence, will accomplish the following: increase fresh food accessibility to low-income customers, increase sales for our farmers and fishermen, increase economic and community development in the Lower Ninth Ward. 

The Sankofa Farmers Market will be the 2nd farmers market in the city to have EBT access. This market will also be the only farmers market, not only in the Lower Ninth Ward, but also in communities adjacent  to the neighborhoods, including the Upper Ninth Ward, Gentilly, Arabi and St. Bernard Parish.

"Yat"Dialect-New Orleans languages multi dimensional

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpFDNTo4DNg&feature=player

Give Us this Day: There lies the time and space in which we live

My special and favorite time is Sunday morning. My usual ritual consisted of upon my arousal I would around 6am spend time nurturing my garden watering, feeding, weeding, plucking away dead leaves, feeling the coolness of the refreshed morning air simply enjoying the sounds lost in my thoughts.. I would then watch CBS Sunday Morning, have my breakfast, read my newspaper, listen to reruns of Girlfriends and write. Many time just a whisper of a unconsciously smiling It may not be unique for some but for me I find it interesting as once upon a time when I was till in my 20’s I dreaded, resented Sundays.

James Baldwin once said: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”. It took awhile & some maturing to get why I felt that way, but lets just say I do not feel that way any longer.

I am not, no matter what people may think, a political person. I am however an observer of life and human behavior in all its vastness, its simplicity and its tendency to make things far more complex then needed. . People never cease to amaze me in the things they do with capability to rise so high and then slam bam falling face first into concrete And then adding insult to injury get up and walk away as if nothing has happened trailing bits & pieces of their pride, humility, embarrassment likes so many colorful pieces of chastened confetti behind them making such a mess!

For me watching life & dynamics but staying a respectful distance sometimes shows me at the end of the day that some of the needless-ness has about as much worth as a Confederate bill in the recession. Knowing that preserving the air & energy it takes to expended is as needed as it keeps me from running screaming into the woods if one gets too caught up!

But just like my youthful intense dislike for Sunday that is long gone & reconciled when people rightly or aptly has intense response to something may be a tickling or an agitation of a long repressed or on the surface forgotten memory. And the passion that it arises is a wondrous sight to behold. That memory does not have to be a bad or painful one, though it can be, but it is amazing to see its resurfacing in ways that can indeed bring about discussion, action and ultimately change (hopefully)

I still hold to the belief when all has been said & done, people want to do the right thing, may go about it in screwy ways at times, but want to do the right thing.

Yet there are times when believing that is stretch uncomfortably.

I do feel that good hearted people still outweighs the others, but the "circle" people gets more air time. My lesson from these folks is "this is what you do not want to be & if there's a hint of it in you, eradicate it quickly”.

I am a flawed person 'tis true :=) I do not have the answers or solutions, merely an observer who still believes in miracles... And imagine I thought all of this as I sat in Autumn’s Secret Garden on this given day…
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